Grover was trying to convince himself that Percy wasn’t acting weird, but it was getting harder and harder by the second. He seemed more on edge than usual, almost jumping at the sight of a pile of leaves Mrs. O’Leary had run into, and Grover was sure he’d only heard half of what he’d told him in the past hour.
He’d gotten to Beckendorf’s apartment before Percy had, and he seemed to share his suspicions. Grover chewed his lip anxiously as Beck told him about his grumpiness all weekend. “He has a test coming up,” he told Beckendorf, “he's probably nervous is all.”
Beck shrugged, clearly not convinced. They both were thinking the same thing: Gabe. Percy wasn’t exactly known for brushing things off, but it was the arguments he had with his stepfather especially that got to him. At the end of last year, things had started escalating. Grover had felt the change in his best friend. Percy had finally started sticking up for himself around his stepfather. Grover and Beck alike had encouraged it, but then Gabe walked in on Percy and his mom talking about him.
The fight had been so bad Percy had to stay with Beck for two weeks and he’d ended up taking his frustration out at school, finally earning him the boot from the institution. Percy had barely been allowed back to the apartment when Grover left for camp that summer. When he came back, Percy had gone back to keeping his head down around his stepfather. But it was only a matter of time before things blew up again.
His behavior was slightly different than before, though. There wasn’t as much anger, he just seemed frustrated, confused.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Grover finally asked.
“What?” He leaned down to calm down Mrs. O’Leary as a small chihuahua walked by and barked at her. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been acting weird all day.”
“No I haven’t…” He sighed, looking away from Grover. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired, Grover. It’s nothing.”
Grover wasn’t convinced. “You’ve been tired since I met you, Percy. You’re going to have to do better than that.”
Percy rolled his eyes at him but knew better than to try to lie to Grover again. “Fine! If you must know, Annabeth and I got into a stupid fight. I don’t know what’s gotten into her! Now, I’m sure I'm going to flunk that stupid test!”
Annabeth?
Grover bit back his smile as Percy went on and on about how impossible she was. He’d had his suspicions since they’d started hanging out more and more without him needing to be there.
“Are you laughing?”
“What? No!” Grover quickly fixed his expression to something more sympathetic. “Annabeth means well, Percy. I’m sure she has a good reason, but she’s not great at expressing her feelings.” Quite like you, he thought to himself. “Just try to talk to her.”
Percy looked slightly panicked at that suggestion. He seemed like he was going to answer but then something behind Grover’s head caught his eye. Grover turned around to see what it was but all he saw was the busy New York skyline being lit by the last rays of sun. He turned back around to ask what all the fuss was about, but Percy appeared hypnotized.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 7/?
Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Characters: Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, Thalia Grace, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Charles Beckendorf
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Slow Burn, Fluff, Swimmer Percy Jackson
Summary:
Percy had always believed in soulmates, but had started losing fate when the world remained black and white. Annabeth had seen one color since she was little, but had thought nothing of it until she moved to New York.
I reached my first 1k a few days ago so, as promised, here’s the next chapter. Prepare for a lot of swimmer!Percy and some throw backs to my own swimming days (this was our actual stretching ritual). I can’t believe I reached 1k! That’s just crazy! Thanks once again to @san-penedo for being my beta and enjoy!
(please search #ramwfics or #ASoY for previous chapters)
Blue
/bloo/
Adjective
of a color intermediate between green and violet, as of the sky or sea on a sunny day.
Annabeth pinched her nose as she squinted through the brightness of her phone screen. Between green and violet. She guessed that meant that she was moving through the color spectrum. As of the sky. Yeah, she’d almost had a heart attack yesterday when she’d looked up, bracing for the recently bright green leaves of the trees, and was slapped with a clear, blue sky looking back down at her. Was this the color of Luke’s eyes? Was this what Thalia had seen all those years ago?
She sighed as she locked her phone’s screen and settled back down onto her pillow, sparing a quick glance to her roomate to make sure she hadn’t disturbed her. It was now obvious to her that she couldn’t keep ignoring this. Grover had tried to hang out with her more the past couple of weeks but she had guiltily denied in fear of Percy being there. Now she made the colossal effort of putting her pride aside and unlocked her phone once again, sending Grover a text asking if they could meet up tomorrow after school.
Even though it was around 12 am Grover answered right away. Sure! Where?
I dunno ur the new yorker, she answered back.
I know a great enchilada place.
She was about to answer but noticed the ellipses that told her Grover was still typing.
Tell thalia to come?
Sure thing. Annabeth knew that Thalia had been avoiding Grover longer than she had and felt guilty all over again about ghosting Grover for the past couple of weeks. She didn’t know if Thalia would agree, but it was worth asking anyways.
Annabeth walked to the address Grover had texted her this morning, self-conscious of her stupid, plaid school skirt. She spotted Grover right away and walked towards the booth he was at, careful to avoid tripping over the crutches he had propped beside him. “Those new?” Annabeth asked as a form of greeting. She hadn’t seen that particular pair before. Grover had EDS (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) which meant he had pretty bad hips and chronic pain that fluctuated day to day so he didn’t always use his crutches.
He looked up from his menu and smiled at her. “Yep.” Grover looked past her hopefully, but Thalia had politely declined her invitation to come. She’d been acting a bit distant with Annabeth too now that she thought about it, ever since she told her about Percy and brought up Luke.
“So what’s good here?” She asked as a way to keep his spirits up. “I mean besides the enchiladas.”
He took a second to answer but collected himself quickly enough. “The guac isn’t bad,” he told her. “Percy approves of it even though he says his mom’s is way better.”
Annabeth ended up ordering the enchiladas and they fell into an easy conversation about school. She did a lot of the talking. Grover had never had a good time at school. She’d hoped things had gotten better with Percy there. She voiced her concern once she felt his guard go down.
He smiled a little to himself, he wasn’t nearly as proud as Thalia or Annabeth but she could tell the question still made hime bristle a little bit. “It was definitely better with Percy there. He got too worked up when people, you know,” Acted like assholes, Annabeth wanted to say but nodded instead. Her mind focused on the ‘was’. “He could give Thalia a run for her money with the temper he’s got.”
“What do you mean was? I thought you guys went to school together.”
By the way Grover stiffened she could tell it was a touchy subject. “He’s going to a different school this year.”
“How come?”
“It’s not really my place to say.” Grover had always been a sensible person, careful with how he handled his friend’s personal business. Annabeth could respect that, but she still wondered. By the way that Grover referred to it she could only guess that Percy’s departure wasn’t amicable. The mention of Percy’s temper also struck her as odd since he’d seemed pretty friendly when she’d met him. “It wasn’t really his fault,” he added hastily at the sight of Annabeth’s face. “He’s just got pretty rotten luck to be honest.”
Annabeth nodded, understanding that that was as much as Grover was willing to share about that particular matter. It eased her mind a little bit that Grover was quick to defend him though, he’s always been a great judge of character. Mostly.
********************
Percy couldn’t believe he’d let Rachel talk him into trying out for the swim team. He knew that Beckendorf held some of the blame as well, practically guiltying him into doing it. No doubt he’d also spoken with his mother since she just happened to know the date of the try-outs as well and had casually asked him if he was going to go for it. Percy knew that Sally had loved the fact that he’d joined the swim team at his last school. His grades had gotten slightly better and he had a good reason to be out of the apartment. Percy had even started considering the idea of college as an actual possibility for a while. Then people started asking too many questions. It was almost impossible to hide the bruises. It all fell apart pretty quickly after. He hadn’t forgotten the utter look of disappointment his mother had worn as the principal told her he wouldn’t be welcomed back to the school and that the other student’s family was likely to press charges. He couldn’t bare to do that to her again.
What am I doing? He asked himself for the millionth time that day as he walked out of the lockers, cap and goggles in hand. His heart was beating pretty fast, partly from nerves at the memory of what had happened the last time he’d been close to a pool, and partly in excitement at getting back in after so many months.
He was one of the first ones there. The blond guy he’d seen earlier in the week was there with three other freshmen-looking guys. He joined them wordlessly and got a brief nod from the blond captain. After about fifteen minutes, more boys started shuffling in. Percy could see the girls gathering around a tall brunette on the other side of the pool. Both captains signaled their groups to gather into one bigger group in the middle. “Alright! I believe this is everyone because if not you’re late!” Percy would never admit it but he actually set up about five alarms on his phone for particularly that reason. It was hard to keep track of time with his ADHD and he was known for being late. “My name is Lauren!”
“And I’m Cole,” chipped in blondie behind the taller girl.
“Right now we’re going to go through a standard warm up. If you’ve been on a team before you’re going to use the lanes on the right, if not use the ones on the left. The warm up is on the whiteboard behind me.” She pointed back and Percy started reading the routine. 400 free, 400 combined… Nothing fancy. “We’re not going to split you off into boys and girls just now but we will be walking around and rearranging some of you guys.”
“But first,” Cole chipped in once again. He was holding a CD player for some reason. “We stretch.” He hit play and Mulan’s ‘I’ll Make a Man Out of You’ started playing. He didn’t seem to notice the various eye rolls and groans that followed and happily started to lead the stretch. Percy had to bite down on his lip at the sight of Lauren doing windmills to the beat of Shang singing about honor and defeating the Huns with a completely stoic face. Both captains couldn’t be more different from each other.
Percy was moved three times throughout the warm up. By the end he was in a lane with two other guys and girls beside him. He’d always hated packed lanes both because he got kind of claustrophobic and because the constant brushing of his toes and having to slow down because of the person in front of him got on his nerves. One particular guy -he could only tell he was white behind his expensive goggles and cap- insisted on cutting ahead of him even when it was pretty obvious he was going extra hard to keep up with Percy’s pace. Percy forced himself to let it go since this was still only the warm-up.
After about twenty minutes they had them line up behind the diving blocks. “Okay! You’re all going to get two jumps! We only want to see your dives right now!” Lauren yelled over the commotion of about forty teenagers getting out of the pool. “Wait for my whistle!”
Percy waited for the five people in front of him to go. He felt his nerves mounting up in his chest as he got on the block. He almost realized too late that he’d actually failed to put his goggles on and barely had time to adjust them before the whistle went off. He landed smoothly in the water though, his hands touching the surface before anything else and letting himself glide for a couple of seconds before doing a dolphin kick to breach the surface. Braving a peak before ducking under the rail to the other lane, he saw that he’d reached just a little over half of the 25 meters. He swallowed his disappointment, last season he ate up more than three quarters of the pool with his dive.
As he lined up for his second dive, he made sure he had his goggles were securely fastened, so by the time he was on the block again he felt much more confident. This time he reached his usual length. Things went pretty well from then on. They had them do a lap or two in each style, full speed, in medley order. Butterfly had always been Percy’s favorite style and he noticed some impressed nods as they noted his time of fifty four seconds for his hundred meter. Next came backstroke, followed by breaststroke, both of which Percy performed nicely at 58 and 57 seconds respectively.
They gave them some time to cool down before going for the fifty and one hundred meters freestyle. Percy’s nerves resurfaced as he waited for his turn to go for the fifty meters. He hadn’t missed Cole and Lauren talking to each other while sparing a few glances his way when he completed the hundred meters in 51 seconds. Even though he’s tied his personal best for the hundred everyone knew that the real show was in the fifty.
His heart started beating wildly when the guy in front of him completed his lap in twenty-four seconds. The girl afterwards swam it at twenty-eight earning an actual cheer from Lauren. Percy could tell she was pretty young, maybe even a freshman. His nerves were turning into actual nausea at this point. His arms felt heavy at his sides as he climbed up the block and he gave them a small shake before brushing his fingers against the ledge, toes curled around it. He let out a deep breath, tensed, and was off the block the second Lauren blew the whistle, his nerves vanishing the moment he hit the water. Percy’s only thoughts were faster, harder, keep it up, don’t slack. Before he knew it, his feet were kicking off the wall, his lungs begging him to come up but him waiting so as to not cut off his glide. That extra boost of speed that he always managed in the last couple of seconds kicked in and he was reaching, reaching…
“Nice!” Percy looked up at Cole as he broke the water, breathing heavily but looking expectantly at the chronometer. “Twenty-two point five!”
The co-captain helped him up and patted him on the back, Lauren beamed at him but was already looking at the next set of swimmers on the block. Twenty-two point five. He was five tenths shy of his personal best. That’s an Olympic qualifying time, Jackson. He remembered his last coach telling him. He’d swam it in twenty-two seconds during his last race. He tried not to think about it, but his stomach still churned in regret.
Happy Birthday to Percy Jackson! This is super fluffy so it commemorates the Percabeth anniversary as well too I believe. Thanks as always to my lovely beta @san-penedo and enjoy the small lifeguard!Percy i managed to sprinkle in there!
(please search #ramwfics or #ASoY for previous chapters)
Percy groaned as he attempted to read the same passage of his history textbook for what appeared to be the hundredth time. The exhaustion that weighed over him thanks to swim practice two hours prior didn’t help either, nor the fact that he had to wake up early tomorrow for his dog-walking gig. He would have little time the rest of the weekend to catch up on homework since he’d taken on extra shifts at the local pool where he worked as a lifeguard to make up for what he couldn’t work during the weekdays now that he was in the swim team.
He got halfway through the passage once again but it was no use, the words just taunted him from the page, dancing around in weird, curvy waves. Frustrated, he slammed the book shut, immediately flinching at the sound. He hadn’t heard anyone come in but Smelly Gabe would give him hell for making any noise during his precious “TV time.” Percy slowly poked his head out of his room and was relieved to find he was home alone. His stepfather was probably out drinking with his buddies and his mom should’ve been heading home from the candy shop. He felt his phone buzz. It was a text from Sally.
Will probably get there in a few hours. Had to close up late and I stopped to get some groceries. Don’t wait up. Love you
Percy texted back a quick reply, knowing full well she was probably closing up but at a new job. She had not wanted to admit it when he’d asked, too concentrated on congratulating him for making the team, but this definitely put a strain on money. His school tuition had already been too much even when he was working more frequently. He wondered once again if this was worth it, if he was worth it. He knew his mom wanted him to have what she didn’t, to finish high school and make it out of this neighbourhood. But he’d only managed to screw up every chance he’d gotten so far, and college just seemed too out of reach. His stepfather seemed to agree with it all being a waste. I won’t waste a dime on your little delinquent kid, Sally! Percy had heard him and his mother arguing after she’d gotten Percy the interview at Goode. As if Smelly Gabe had ever contributed anything but anxiety to Percy’s life. He’d silently prayed he wouldn’t be allowed into the school, didn’t really see how considering his record and poor grades. But, somehow, he’d made it in.
He made his way into the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge. He’d made sure to have an extra large lunch but he had not eaten since practice and he was starving. Percy looked at the clock. 10:32 pm. He figured Beckendorf would be at his apartment, getting back from work himself. Last year he would alternate his time between practice and Beckendorf’s apartment. Most days Grover would join them and they would pass the time bothering Beckendorf about Silena or playing with Mrs. O’Leary. Yet another thing Percy had screwed up when he got himself kicked out. He slammed the fridge door too, this time flinching because he knew he couldn’t afford to break the old thing. It’s not like Beckendorf had stopped inviting him over. He’d even hung out there a few days ago. Percy just couldn’t help but feel guilty whenever he saw him.
In the end, his own boredom and frustration won and he found himself in front of Beckendorf’s door. Mrs. O’Leary must’ve heard him come because Percy could hear her barking through the door. A few seconds later there was Beckendorf staring down at him, still im his mechanic overalls. “Hey! Everything okay?” Percy didn’t miss how his dark eyes scanned his face. There had been a couple of times last year when he’d knocked on his door later at night looking worse for wear.
“Yeah,” he answered casually, “I just got bored. Can I come in?”
“Yeah, of course.” Beckendorf stepped aside, making sure to hold on to Mrs. O’Leary’s colar. The large Rottweiler had started bounding happily at the sight of Percy, who scratched her ears on his way in. Beckendorf knew Percy too well. “You hungry?” He asked as they shuffled into his living room/kitchen.
Percy tried not to look too embarrassed as he admitted: “I’m starving.”
************
“What?” Percy asked Grover for the second time. He’d been too focused on a scrawny kid flopping around in the pool in front of him to hear what his friend was saying. He’d seen the kid before, not the strongest swimmer but Percy could tell it was more due to lack of confidence than anything else. He’d seen him manage quite well in the shallower parts of the pool. Today it seemed like he’d finally decided to try out the deeper end though. The kid’s parents were nowhere to be seen, and Percy could see the panic starting to creep into his face as he realized the water was too deep to stand in. “I’ll be right back.”
Percy slid into the water. He didn’t want to make a scene since the kid wasn’t actually drowning and he wanted to give him a chance to get out of there by himself. The boy spotted him right away, relief evident in his face. Percy was tall enough to stand in this part of the pool so he made his way slowly towards him. “Hey there.” The kid didn’t make a dash to hold onto him so Percy knew hadn’t gotten too desperate, but the way he was flopping around would tire him out soon enough. “What’s your name?”
The kid, looking mildly embarrassed, told him it was Trevor. Slowly but surely, Percy got Trevor to paddle to a shallower part of the pool. His parents finally made an appearance not soon after. “Hey ma’am,” Percy called. They were clearly here just to pick him up and they didn’t look too happy about it. The father hadn’t even looked up from his phone. “Is this your kid?” The mother, a woman that appeared to be blonde with unusually dark skin (through his limited color palette Percy assumed it was due to a bad tanning job), looked him up and down but didn’t find it within herself to answer. “I had to help Travis swim away from the deeper end of the pool. He’s not a strong enough swimmer yet for you to leave him on his own like-”
“Oh, I’m sorry, are you complaining about doing your job?” The woman’s tone made Percy’s blood boil but he clenched his fists to keep his temper in check. He didn’t need any complaints going to his supervisor. He tried to apologize but the woman was too busy yanking Trevor out of the water to care. Percy tried to put on a fake smile as he waved goodbye to the kid and sulked back to his chair.
Grover looked distastefully at the spot where the woman had gone. “A plus parenting, huh?”
Percy rolled his eyes in agreement and slumped back into his chair. “What were you saying before?”
“Oh right,” Grover tried to calm his nerves, but he’d never been a good liar and Percy knew him pretty well by now. Grover was hoping to catch Percy in a good mood since he knew he wouldn’t like this next part very much. “Well, you know how you’ve been telling me you’ve been struggling with homework lately?”
That question alone was enough to hit a nerve. “I’m not struggling, Grover. I was just saying that I’m tired and I hate reading.”
“Yeah, well I was talking to Annabeth-” Grover held up a pleading hand before Percy could interrupt him- “She’s really smart, Percy! She could help you out after school!”
“Why did you have to tell her anything? I don’t even know her!”
“I didn’t tell her anything about that!” Grover argued. He knew it was hard for Percy to talk about people about his dyslexia and ADHD; he wouldn’t betray his trust like that. Little did Percy know, however, that Annabeth was in the same boat. “I just told her you needed some help with some subjects because I know she’s really good at all that stuff and she actually volunteered herself to tutor you.” It had taken Grover aback a bit actually. Annabeth was nice and always there to help, but she didn’t take on to new people right away. Grover hadn’t gotten the impression that she disliked Percy, but it usually took her a lot longer to show interest in new people. The only other person he knew she’d gotten along with right away was Thalia. Now that Grover thought about it, Percy and Thalia did have a lot in common, though.
“Tutor me?” Percy was looking thoroughly annoyed, eyes fixed on the water before him.
“She’s not going to charge you or anything,” Grover winced at his own comment. It was hard to manage Percy’s temper around this subject. He hated feeling pitied and wasn’t big on asking for help. “She’s just trying to help and she’s new here. She doesn’t know many people besides me and Thalia.” Percy sighed. “She’s the smartest person I know, Percy. I trust her. You met her. She’s cool.” Grover could tell he was going to give in. He knew Percy was worried about keeping his grades up. His swim coach had let him on the team under the condition that he would get his GPA up enough to get out of probation from the school. Grover was also secretly excited about his two best friends possibly becoming friends themselves.
“Fine,” Percy finally said, bringing his whistle up to his lips at the sight of a group of small girls chasing each other. He gave one firm blow and pointed at the sign that read No Running when they both whipped their heads towards him. “I’ve got some free time on Monday after practice.”
*************
Annabeth tapped her pen impatiently against the table she’d settled in at the library. It didn’t help her temper that today she found out that this same pen, which she’d been using since the beginning of the semester, was bright red. The color of romance, her father had once jokingly told her. And danger, Annabeth now thought. Yeah, that seemed more accurate in her case.
The guy was almost an hour late. She was about to give up when she heard what sounded like a chair being knocked over, a loud hush, and a quick apology. A few seconds later, there was Percy Jackson. His hair was still wet from what she assumed was swim practice and he was holding a battered skateboard under his arm. Annabeth was once again struck by the intense green of his eyes. She thought she’d gotten used to the color after seeing it everywhere for the past couple of weeks, but it still floored her. There was nothing else that was that exact shade of green.
“You’re late.”
He at least managed to look guilty as he pulled a chair out noisily, earning him a death glare from the librarian at the desk. “I know. I’m so sorry. We ended late and the subway broke down or something.”
Annabeth would’ve shrugged that off as a half-assed excuse but every time she’d gotten on the subway that week it had stopped for almost an hour. Percy also had a very sincere way of saying things that kind of put her on edge. She waved her hand dismissively. “It’s fine. Did you bring your book?” He pulled a history textbook from his battered backpack. She tried to ignore the fact he’d dogeared the page. “Fall of Constantinople, right?”
“Yeah.” She could tell this whole ordeal embarrassed him a little. It was becoming harder and harder to remember she was annoyed at him. “I just...can’t seem to understand why this city was so important. From what I managed to extract from the other chapter, it seems like this whole empire was already done for.”
“I mean it was certainly in decline, and the Ottoman Turks had taken the Balkans and Anatolia by this point. So that made Constantinople the last city holding up what used to be this seemingly unbreachable empire.” Annabeth saw Percy nodding along and jutting down some notes. There was no other way to call it, it was cute. “Constantinople also represented Mehmed’s rival religion.”
“Wait, so he tried to take it again? This Meh...however you say his name? He’d already tried before, right?”
“No, that was his dad.” Annabeth leaned closer to the passage Percy was looking at. He pushed the book towards her so she could get a better look. The font was so tiny that Annabeth almost got dizzy. It would’ve taken her almost an hour to decipher just one paragraph. She pushed the book back towards him, hoping he hadn’t noticed. Thankfully, she had always been good at remembering names and they’d gone over this in her school in San Francisco last year. “Murad was the one who failed to take the city and then his son Mehmed tried again and succeeded. He got this Hungarian artillery expert, Urban I think he was called, to build him a cannon powerful enough to take down the walls of the city.”
“Sorry, could you spell that last name?”
Something about the question made Annabeth falter for a second. Percy appeared to understand most of what they were talking about. It was the names that seemed to stump him. It sounded a little familiar. “Sure.” Annabeth spelled the name out for him and she watched him make some new notes. She thought about how Grover never failed to bring up Percy one way or another when she complained about homework assignments. “Once Mehmed seized the city he used the emperor’s famed cathedral as a mosque. I can’t remember the name though. Is it in your book? I don’t know if they’d want you to know it for class.”
Annabeth observed as Percy scanned the page; she could practically feel the frustration oozing off of him. She was absolutely certain her suspicions were correct when she saw him push the book a bit far away, a trick she herself had tried many times. “Hey Percy,” he grunted in response, still absorbed in the textbook, “are you maybe...dyslexic?”
She felt him tense right away. Grover hadn’t told her for a reason, it was clearly a touchy subject for him. Annabeth was grateful that Grover had also clearly failed to tell Percy about her. “I just think that’s why Grover brought all of this up.” He was now looking at her, a complicated look on his face, like he didn’t know whether or not he should be getting offended. “It’s just that,” it had always been hard for her to talk about it too. It was like a cosmic joke for someone that loved reading so much to be made in a way that made it almost impossible to do so. “I am too, dyslexic I mean. Just looking at that book just now made me want to throw up.” His expression immediately softened. Annabeth noted the way he could easily go from one emotion to another. “That font size is awful.”
“I know right. And it’s and older edition so it doesn’t have an audio version.”
“I think I still have one for my textbook last year. I don’t know if it has everything in this one but-”
“No, yeah. That’d be great! I mean if you don’t mind-”
He thanked her once again and they finally exchanged numbers. They got through the main events of Constantinople. Annabeth remembered everything pretty well and Percy took notes. She felt light as a feather the whole time. She tried to ignore it. It’d never been this way with anyone she liked in the past. Her crush on Luke had been anything but light. Being with Percy was just nice. She didn’t know about the whole ‘soulmate’ ordeal, she didn’t even know if she liked him that way really, but she definitely wanted to hang out with him again.
An hour later he casually checked his phone and almost jumped off his chair, earning him yet another glare from the librarian. Annabeth tried to mask her snort as a cough. “Sorry,” he said quickly. He turned to Annabeth. “I have to go. Are you free Thursday?” She was pretty sure she would be but she’d have to check. She could tell he was in a hurry though so she told Percy she’d text him. “Thanks again! See you then.”
Annabeth smiled silently to herself as Percy hurried out of the library, bumping into several chairs and failing beautifully at making a quiet exit. Her smiled melted when she looked down at the pen she was still holding. Bright red.
Here’s chapter one of this ColorSoulmate! AU! Will probably update weekly from now on. Hope you enjoy!
(please search #ramwfics or #ASoY for later chapters)
Annabeth couldn’t believe Grover had talked her into meeting this Percy kid that he always went on about. She started school tomorrow! She didn’t have time for this, she need to catch up on whatever they’d covered last year. Her private school back in San Francisco wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t even close to the level of The New York Institute of Science. Annabeth had left the summer reading to the last minute because it gave her a migraine. She couldn’t help but think how stupid she’d been as she sat beside Grover at the park. Reading with dyslexia was already hard enough without adding the stress of a time constraint.
“Is he going to take much longer, Grover?” She asked, hoping she didn’t sound rude. “I’ve really got to head back to my dorm soon.”
“Yeah he said he’d be here like five minutes ago, but he’s not answering his phone. Can you try looking around for him while I try to calling him again?”
“Sure. What does he look like?”
“He’s probably walking like five dogs. You should be able to spot him easily.”
Annabeth scanned the park, her eyes fleeting from an old couple to a little kid and his mom and finally to a boy that looked around her age indeed walking a large group of dogs. He was struggling to keep the largest one, a rather large rottweiler, away from a tiny chihuahua that didn’t seem to realize he was much smaller. “There he is,” she told Grover.
“Where? How can you tell?” He scrunched up his dark eyes trying to look at where she was pointing.
“There. With the dark hair right? He’s the one. He must be.”
Grover finally seemed to have spotted him and called over to him. The boy immediately looked up, almost losing his balance when the rottweiler spotted a squirrel and gave a particularly nasty tug. He smiled wide and waved back before walking towards them.
Annabeth stood completely still as he approached them. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath. It had nothing to do with the fact that this Percy guy was kind of cute (of course not!), it was just his eyes. His eyes that she could see were a bright, startling shade of green. Ocean green.
Shit.
“Hi,” he said, sticking out his hand shyly, “I’m Percy.”
Annabeth stared down at the hand. Then back up at his face. She could feel Grover fidgeting beside her. He’d been nervous about the two of them meeting and not liking each other. She’d promised herself that she would at least give Percy a shot, but right now all she wanted to do was bolt. Get it together.
Annabeth took Percy’s hand, averting her gaze from his eyes. “Annabeth.”
“Right,” said Grover, “so now that you’ve finally met I thought we could go grab something to eat.”
Annabeth was racking her brain for the nicest possible way to ditch but just then Percy cried out: “Yes! I’m starving!”
“What about all these dogs?”
Percy shrugged, kneeling down to scratch the rottweiler, who looked quite intimidating now that she was closer, behind the ears. “Mrs. O’Leary is hungry too.”
*********************
Percy had wanted to hate Annabeth. He knew it was pretty unfair and it was just him being jealous of his best friend having another best friend. Still, knowing it didn’t make his feelings go away. But, turns out, that that Annabeth girl was actually pretty cool.
“Cool, but like in a scary way,” he told Grover after she’d left and they’d finished dropping off most of the dogs off. Percy hadn’t forgotten that steely look she gave him when he first offered her his hand. That was another thing as well. She had the most distracting eyes. If he could see color he’d guessed they were probably one of the light colors his mother had described to him, like blue or green, maybe even hazel. To him they just looked that shade between black and white that he sometimes caught, grey he’d been told it was called. He’d never really seen grey look like that though, almost like a storm.
It wasn’t only her eyes that intimidated Percy either. Annabeth Chase was simply the smartest person he’d ever come across. She pointed out buildings as they walked to the hot dog stand, going on and on about their structure. Usually, Percy wouldn’t really care for all of that, but she spoke with so much passion and confidence that he found himself holding on to every word she said. Her eyes just shone with life.
“I get it man,” Grover told him, “she’s like the smartest person I know. It can be pretty overwhelming. But she’s actually pretty nice. If anything, Thalia taught her how to look scary.”
Percy came down from his own confused thoughts for a second to catch that last name. Grover hadn’t mentioned Thalia in a while, not since another one of his camp friends -Luke- died a few years ago. He’d always wanted to ask him more about it, but for some reason it seemed as if Grover blamed himself for whatever it is that happened. Percy didn’t want to push him too far.
Both boys rounded the corner to the last dog owners’ apartment. Mrs. O’Leary was owned by a boy a few years older than them, Charles Beckendorf. Percy met him at the same school he met Grover, one of the many he’d gotten kicked out of over the years. He didn’t live too far from Percy and had even been nice enough to hook him up with the dog walking gig. Percy liked dogs, walking them was definitely one of his favorite jobs, but the real reason that he’d accepted was because he got to spend so much time with Beckendorf’s huge rottweiler. Like him, she seemed big and scary, but was actually pretty docile once you got to know her.
They both stopped a few doors before Beckendor’s apartment when they saw the girl he was talking to. Beckendorf had had the biggest crush on the girl that lived right across the hall from him, Silena Beugarde, ever since Percy met him. He’d never told him, but Percy was sure he could tell what color her eyes were. Now, the tall, dark-haired girl was standing right in front of their friend, who had the goofiest smile Percy had ever seen. He was still wearing his mechanic overalls and had a grease stain on his forehead but she didn’t seem to mind. He was much taller than her. Her delicate features were accentuated by the sharp contrast with his harsher ones, but they still scrunched up in a smile, guided a strand of her behind her ear.
After a couple of minutes she walked away towards where Grover and Percy were standing. Even though she was solid black and white to Percy he still felt a slight blush creep up his cheeks as she waved goodbye to all three of them.
“What was that about?” Percy asked as they finally walked into the apartment.
“What?” Beckendorf hadn’t stopped staring at his door. “Oh, uh, nothing,” he finally said, clearly wanting to change the subject. “How was Mrs. O’Leary today? Didn’t give you too much trouble?”
“You know she never does.”
“So you’re just going to pretend like Silena and you weren’t totally just flirting right now?” Asked Grover.
The older boy’s cheek’s got even darker. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure.”
Whatever was going on Beckendorf was obviously going to keep the younger boys guessing. “What about you guys?” He asked, clearly wanted to divert the attention away from him. “You’re starting school next week right? Both of you?”
It’d been quite a feat getting another school to take Percy in given his track record. Beckendorf had offered to help, but it was already embarrassing enough that he knew he’d gotten expelled yet again. He’d vouched so much for Percy in the past.
“Yeah,” Percy said, “Goode High School for me.”
Beckendorf nodded. “That’s a pretty good school. I’ve heard they have a great swim team.”
Percy didn’t think Beckendorf was being as subtle as he thought he was. He’d joined the swim team at his last school, had even swam varsity. He doubted he’d tried again this year though. It’d been hard enough then to hide the evidence of Smelly Gabe’s drunken tantrums. Goode was one of those rich schools where they asked a lot of questions.
“Good for them,” Percy finally said, not missing the look both his friends exchanged.
Akhirnya salah satu wish list saya kecoret juga, naik gunung! Sebelumnya paling pol cuma ke Bromo, tapi itu juga gak dihitung ‘gunung’ kan? Dan di hari jumat (18/08) kemarin, akhirnya saya dikasih kesempatan buat naik ke gunung Merbabu bareng dua teman SMA saya. Sebenernya rencana naik gunung ini gak dipersiapkan bener-bener sih, spontan aja gitu rencananya. Kadang kan emang gitu, yang spontan malah justru kejadian daripada yang cuma wacana. Tapi, sepertinya rencana spontan buat naik gunung itu sangatlah gak dianjurkan, apalagi buat pendaki pemula seperti saya kan.
Jadi ceritanya gini, berawal dari liburan SP yang saya pake buat pulang ke Malang awal Agustus kemarin. Niat awalnya emang sekedar pulang aja, gak bawa apapun yang berhubungan sama naik gunung. Sampai akhirnya ada notif di grup wasap SMA yang intinya ngajak ke Jogja buat naik gunung, itung-itung sekalian liburan karena emang lama juga gak pernah main bareng. Juga mumpung teman saya, Herdi, sekarang lagi tinggal di jogja. Jadi ya, saya okein aja. Sekalian ke Museum Sonobudoyo buat nyari bahan penelitian dan setelahnya bisa langsung cus ke Bandung, gitu pertimbangan saya.
Akhirnya saya berangkat hanya berbekal tas ransel (bukan tas gunung), sandal gunung (yang akhirnya terpaksa harus beli dulu, daripada harus pake sneakers), tas kamera, jaket parka + sleeping bag + head lamp (dipinjemin mbak adin), dan semua barang-barang yang harus saya bawa sekalian ke Bandung setelahnya. Sungguh, bukan starter pack anak gunung. Malah mirip anak-anak endorsan kekinian yang mau cari tempat bagus cuma buat foto, kata Bagus, teman SMA saya yang satunya lagi. Pret.
*Starter pack yang salah, kan?
Kamis (17/08) malam saya sama Bagus berangkat dari Malang menuju Jogja. Sesampainya di Jogja sekitar pukul 3.30 pagi, kami langsung cus ke kosnya Herdi. Nah, disini terjadi perubahan tujuan. Tiba-tiba Herdi malah ngajakin ke Merbabu, bukannya Merapi. Merapi tracknya curam tapi sebentar, Merbabu tracknya lebih panjang tapi lebih tinggi daripada Merapi, gitu kata Herdi. Bagus setuju, ya karena emang dia udah sering naik gunung jadinya gak ada masalah mau lebih tinggi atau lebih susah tracknya. Saya sendiri? Ya ikutan setuju lah. Pengalaman cuma sekali naik Gunung Bromo gak cukup buat adu argument sama mereka. Tapi di dalam hati tetep sih, “duh, semoga kuat, semoga iso”.
So, setelah browsing tentang Merbabu serta rute perjalanannya gimana, akhirnya sekitar jam 10 pagi kami bertiga berangkat ke daerah Selo, Boyolali, sebagai titik pertama menuju Merbabu. Perjalanan dari pusat kota Jogja menuju Selo memakan waktu sekitar 3 jam, itu udah kepotong kami berhenti dulu buat Jum’atan. Berbekal tanya sana-sini, akhirnya kami sampe juga di Gancik, buat pendaftaran untuk naik ke Merbabu.
Disini kami bertiga sama masnya dikasih info kalo ternyata ada 2 jalur buat mendaki Merbabu. Yang pertama via Selo, tracknya memutar dan memakan waktu sekitar 4-5 jam. Yang kedua, via Gancik, tracknya lebih cepat 2 jam daripada Selo tapi lebih terjal sedikit dan lebih landai. Rutenya, basecamp-Pos 1-Pos 2-Pos 3-Sabana 1-Sabana 2-Puncak Merbabu. Karena kami sampenya udah siang dan juga harus menghemat waktu, akhirnya kami pilih jalur Gancik. Semua motor bisa di parkir di basecamp terakhir, biayanya Rp. 5000. Di Gancik juga ada mas-mas ojek yang bisa nganterin kita sampai batas cor-coran/tanah plesteran (apa se bahasa Indonesianya?), biayanya Rp. 10.000. Atau bisa juga sampe di bawah pos 1, biayanya sekitar 30-40rb tergantung keahlian kita nawar aja. Track awal buat naik ke pos 1 emang beneran berat sih menurut saya. Tanah cor-coran yang harus dilewati itu kemiringannya ada kali sekitar 600 dan emang curam banget. Herdi aja sampe menyerah dan akhirnya ngojek sampe bawah pos 1. Sedangkan saya sama Bagus memutuskan untuk jalan kaki dari awal. Masak gini aja ngojek, pikir kami berdua.
Kenyataanya, saya lebih banyak minta waktu buat istirahat daripada Bagus. Maklum, pemula. :P
Setelah ketemu sama Herdi di Pos 1, kami bertiga akhirnya melanjutkan perjalanan sampe Pos 3. Butuh waktu sekitar 3,5 jam hingga akhirnya kami bertiga sampe di Pos 3. Itu udah ditambah tragedi kakinya Herdi yang kram kiri-kanan, yang akhirnya memutuskan kami untuk mendirikan tenda di Pos 3. Karena kakinya si Herdi lagi gak tenang butuh istirahat, dia memutuskan untuk di tenda aja dan gak ikut naik ke puncak. Soalnya track sabana 1-sabana 2-Puncak emang terjal dan menanjak sih. Bisa butuh waktu sampe puncak 2 hari kalo Herdi ikut, kan. :P
*ekspresi nahan kram. Sakit banget kayak e ya.
*Tolong menolong adalah koentji.
Saya sendiri, Cuma bisa sampe sabana 2 aja, gak kuat lagi buat naik ke puncak buat ngejar sunrise. Maklum, pemula (alesanmu, mid!). Jadi ya saya biarkan Bagus dengan hasrat petualangnya buat lanjut ke puncak, saya titip absen aja sama dia. Ohya, di perjalanan ke sabana 2, saya ketemu 2 orang dari Surabaya yang juga lagi summit ke puncak, Pak Anang dan Pak satunya-yang-gak-sempet-saya-tanyakan-namanya. Bagus lanjut summit ke puncak bareng Pak satunya-yang-gak-sempet-saya-tanyakan-namanya, sedangkan saya sama Pak Anang (55th) berhenti di sabana 2 dan memutuskan untuk duluan balik ke Pos 3.
Yah, walaupun saya gak bisa dapet sunrise di puncak Merbabu, karena kebetulan pagi itu agak mendung, saya masih bisa menikmati keindahan gunung Merbabu. Jadi ini, yang bikin orang-orang ketagihan naik gunung. Ya emang pemandangan dari ketinggian itu waksi banget sih. Apalagi kontur tanah serta perbukitannya, perpaduan antara puncak-puncak gunun dan awan, serta kabut yang perlahan-perlahan masuk itu emang waksi pol! Meskipun saya dapet jekpot ngglundung 2x waktu perjalanan turun ke pos 3, itu gak mengurangi kebahagiaan saya. Alhamdulillah akhirnya saya bisa merasakan momen seperti ini.
*Konco SMA, @bagus_akbarr & @herditami
*savanna Pos 3
*Pos 3 dengan view gunung Merapi
*mencari semak-semak buat beraksi
Rutam nuwus, Merbabu, belum 3142 Mdpl. Sampai jumpa lagi. Gak tau juga kapan saya akan melunasi PR mu untuk sampai puncak.
Bukan tentang seberapa jauh dan seberapa berat medan yang ditempuh.
Tapi tentang seberapa kuat tekadmu untuk melalui itu semua.
Itu yang lebih penting. – dimazfakhr
